It is very necessary that your Majesty should send a visitor for the religious of St. Augustine.  He should be a friar from over there in Hespana, a man of great ability, very observant, fond of poverty, etc.  He should not come alone, but with a considerable number of similar religious.  He must not come as visitor and vicar-general for a limited time—­for the affairs of this Order here are not such that they can be set right in two, three, or four years—­but as some friar named de Montoia went to Portugal.  If things are as reported—­and they must be so, in large part at least—­affairs are in a ruinous condition.  The one thing that most needs remedy in these islands, Sire, is this matter of the Order of St. Augustine.

At present one of these fathers, [23] named Fray Juan Gutierrez, is being sent by their superiors to the feet of your Majesty.  He has been definitor, and has had three offices in his Order, and it has been proposed to make him provincial.  I consider him a very modest and religious friar, who will earnestly plead with your Majesty in this matter of the inspection and improvement of his Order.  I beseech your Majesty to favor and aid him in all ways.

The religious of the Society live here in an exemplary manner, which is necessary here, and carry out well the Indian missions in their charge.  They are reputed excellent in some of their methods of instruction, but it is very necessary that your Majesty should curb them in some matters.  Your Majesty should command that what I here relate be investigated.  Near this city there is a small Indian village, called Quiapo, which is assigned, it must be by the governors, for the service of the great church of this city.  It is pitiful indeed to see how bare it is of every advantage.  These Indians feel much aggrieved at the Society’s religious, saying that the latter have taken from them their lands and inheritances, to their very houses.  The poor Indians are in a most poverty-stricken condition, and certainly one must shut his ears, in order not to listen to what he hears in this matter.  It is a great pity that some poor Indians are complaining against the religious having taken from them their paltry property.  The said Indians are writing to your Majesty in the matter; I beseech your Majesty to command that it be noted that these are the children, grandchildren, and relatives of the former king of this city, who was here when the Spaniards captured it.  He was called Raja Soliman.  They only ask your Majesty to protect them from the Jesuits, [24] and to cause their lands and inheritances to be returned to them.  They consider all laymen as prejudiced judges; for certainly the governors as well as the auditors usually are not willing to incur the displeasure of the religious, as they do not write anything against them either to your Majesty or to any of your Council.  If this matter could be entrusted to some religious of St. Dominic or St. Francis, who have no income or